Talk with Ecologist Dawn Bazely and Visit to Exhibition Worlds Away at The Goldfarb Gallery of York University
We invite you to join us for a special screening and point-of-view talk with York Biology Professor Dawn Bazely as she responds to our current exhibition Anne Duk Hee Jordan: Worlds Away, through her knowledge of biology and ecological systems. Bazely has been a field biologist for forty years and her research specializes in plant/animal interactions. She has also developed expertise in science policy and communications as well as citizen science.
As part of the program, participants will have the opportunity to explore the exhibition and view the special presentation of Brakfesten – La Grande Bouffe, 2022–23, a short film by Anne Duk Hee Jordan and Pauline Doutreluingne. Brakfesten – La Grande Bouffe zooms into a symbiotic ecosystem, centering on a public sculpture created in Södra Hällarna, a Swedish forest that is threatened with extinction due to Elm disease. The film centres on the mutual interdependence of the trees, insects, birds, and other organisms that live there and explores the possibility to support future regeneration. Brakfesten – La Grande Bouffe was commissioned and produced by Public Art Agency Sweden in collaboration with Baltic Art Center.
Shifting the focus away from humans, Berlin-based artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan brings to light unseen connections between different species, and to forces of the world that usually remain imperceptible. The exhibition Worlds Away unfolds as a multisensory environment centered on ocean organisms such as phytoplankton and deep-sea life. Visitors encounter an immersive sound composition that moves through states of descent, breath, and vibration.
Dawn Bazely joined York University’s Faculty of Science as a biology professor in 1990. She directed York’s Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability for seven years, receiving the university’s Sustainability Leadership Award and the title of University Professor in 2017. Dawn’s many awards include the 2021 Royal Canadian Institute for Science’s Fleming Medal for excellence in science communication. She advocates for public science, and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity in STEM. In 2024–25, Dawn held the Fulbright Canada Distinguished Professorship at Yale University, carrying out research on ecotourism and teaching the undergraduate course Canada’s Approach to Global Environmental Wicked Problems.
About the Host: The Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery of York University is a socially minded not-for-profit contemporary art gallery that is a space for the creation and appreciation of art and culture. It is a supported Unit of York University. We are externally funded as a public art gallery through the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, local and international foundations, embassies, and our membership who support all of our programs.
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